Book Reccomendations

[kenshinbebop]

I'm getting back into literature after a long stint of no out-of-school books. I recently finished Fight Club and am now finishing up No Country For Old Men. I was thinking of moving onto another Palahniuk, maybe Choke or Invisible Monster. I wanted to get a few options though. I like really anything, though I am a bit hesitant around Sci-Fi/Utopian based stories. I just like good literature, classsics are deffinately a plus. Not like classic classics like a Frankenstein or something, but contemporary classics. My favorite book is Catcher in the Rye if that means anything.

I'm thinking about starting 100 Years of Solitude or Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, but want more options.


Thanks.

[loplop]

I would strongly recommend the novels of Haruki Murakami or Tim O'Brien. I just finished Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami and it's now one of my favorite books. If your going to read Tim O'Brien, Try If I Die in a Combat Zone : Box Me Up and Ship Me Home or Tomcat in Love.

[Phantom]

Lord of the flys if you haven't already read it. You probably have though considering how famous it is.

[kenshinbebop]

Yeah, LotF was a great book too.

Farenheit 451 is probably my second favroite book.

[Holy Knight]

I'd go for Choke if you want more Palahniuk. Good Book.

I'm seconding the Haruki Murakami recommendation. Kafka on the Shore is his better known novel, but you're good with just about any of his stuff.

If you want to get into Sci-fi there's always Isaac Asimov. If you want standards of literature, I highly recommend the Dune series as well as Ender's game. Great reads there.

As for contemporary classics... 100 years of Solitude is indeed a good choice. You can try William Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom, though I warn against the book's unique prose. Get it at the library first to have a taste. I haven't read too many such classics, so I can't add in more than that.

Finally, if you're into fantasy, I recommend Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell since it's fantasy with a twist, reads like a 19th century novel and appeals to an older audience.

[Hara!]

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

The novel is told through two alternating first person narratives of the characters Dr. Impossible and Fatale. Dr. Impossible is a self-proclaimed supervillain of the mad genius variety, who suffers from "Malign Hypercognition Disorder" ("evil genius" syndrome). Fatale is a female cyborg and the novel begins with her called up to join the superhero group The Champions, a Justice League of America/Avengers-style team in the wake of the disappearance of the superhero CoreFire.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

The White Tiger is the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga. It was first published in 2008 and won the Man Booker Prize for the same year.[1] The novel studies the contrast between India's rise as a modern global economy and the main character, who comes from crushing rural poverty.[2]

Balram Halwai is the White Tiger: the smartest boy in his village in the "Darkness" of rural India. The son of a rickshaw-puller, Balram's family is too poor to allow him to finish school, and instead he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables. However, Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi. The city is a revelation. As he drives his master to shopping malls and call centres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world. As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorous new India.

The novel takes the form of a series of letters written late at night by Balram to Wen Jiabao, the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. In the letters, Balram describes his rise from lowly origins to his current position as an entrepreneur in Bangalore, as well as his views on India's caste system and its political corruption.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

Though a follow-up to his humorously deadpan previous book, The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z is more serious in tone, and strives to be both factually and psychologically convincing. Brooks also states that World War Z follows the "laws" set up in The Zombie Survival Guide, and that the guide exists in this world as a precursor to the war.[1]

Brooks plays the role of an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission who published the novel in this fictional future after the United Nations left out much of his work from the official report. Rather than a grand overview or a single perspective, World War Z is instead a collection of individual accounts in the form of interviews between the author and the characters. Taking place in the 2010s, the book charts a war against zombies from remote oddities, to a global pandemic to mass panic, and then to an armed struggle to reclaim the planet from the undead. In addition, the personal accounts describe the changing religious, geo-political, and environmental aftermath of the Zombie war.

Inspired by the The Good War and George Romero, Brooks uses World War Z to provide commentary on a wide range of topics including government ineptitude, survivalism, and uncertainty in our times. It has been praised by critics and the audiobook version, complete with an all-star cast, won the 2007 Audie Award. A film based upon the book is currently in development, and is expected to be released in 2010.

[Haro!]

Areas of My Expertise, and More Information Than You Require. Both by John Hodgman, and both masterworks in the genre of made up facts/history. More Information is not a sequel to Areas, rather a direct continuation, since it starts on page 237.

[Mr March]

If you like McCarthy, I can definitely recommend The Road, which I just finished myself. I made a topic about it just a couple posts down.

[koinosuke]

If your going to read Tim O'Brien, Try If I Die in a Combat Zone : Box Me Up and Ship Me Home or Tomcat in Love.
I second Tim O'brien. His writing style is really something else. I'd also recommend his book In the Lake of the Woods, a murder-mystery/psychological sort of book focusing on the truth and how it varies between people. Very good stuff.

And just because it's so damn incredible, I have to recommend George RR Martin's epic realistic fantasy A Song of Ice and Fire. Sure, the name sounds geeky, but it's pretty much the best thing ever. Read some reviews and see if it sounds like your sort of thing.

[goddessofanime]

If you like McCarthy, I can definitely recommend The Road, which I just finished myself. I made a topic about it just a couple posts down.

What I was going to say.

If you're looking for something a little more humorous, there's Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris, whom I'm a total fangirl of. Dude is funny.

[AnimeHunter]

If you like classics' books than I would reccomend either William Saroyan's The Human comedy which is avery light read or if you want something more dificult I would suggest Kenneth Ghrahame's The Wind in the Willows which is a good book to read any time.

[kittynboi]

Graham Greene is good if you like geopolitical, low key spy sort of stuff, at least in his later stuff, like Our Man in Havana and The Quiet American.